Zelda, the 73 Convertible

Right about 2 years ago a fellow here at the office advertised this 73 Mustang Convertible for sale. I was looking for a project (I usually look for little British cars) but this was a big four seater and looked to be a decent deal. We scheduled to meet up a gas station near his house to have a look. He pulled around the corner and I was shocked, first by the length of the hood, I had forgotten how long those hoods were, and secondly by the fact that it looked pretty decent, doors closed, didn’t appear to have too much rust, top didn’t go up or down due to a leak, and it ran really well. During the chat I had pretty much given up the idea that I needed the car, I told him that but he was a nice guy and asked me to make an offer, so I did, and danggit, he took it! There ya go; I now have a 73 Mustang convertible! Now, I live about an hour and a half from the site of the “deal” and told him it would be a day or two before I could get it out of his way, but as fate would have it he and his brother were heading south that afternoon and would just drive it down; problem solved! I headed home and about an hour after I got there they showed up cruising in the spring South Florida air as they were meant to. It really did run well.

For the rest of the summer we drove it around as I started to accumulate parts and information and knowledge about the car.






Early august rolls around, the Rover is out of the warehouse and Zelda goes in to start her refurbishment. We’ve enjoyed driving her in her clapped out state all summer, got the top functioning properly, even got her a new shoes in the form of 17” American Racing Wheels and 255/45/17s on them. I’ve gotten a big list of parts for all the usual suspects, the UPS man is getting to know me well.

First weekend in the warehouse was a good one! It’s amazing how much you can get done when tearing stuff down. (this was the weekend of Aug 4th 2014)

Good start on the project!

First weekend in the warehouse was a good one! It’s amazing how much you can get done when tearing stuff down. (this was the weekend of Aug 4th 2014)

Click to expand...

What stage is the car now since 2014? Good looking project btw.

Pretty much only working one weekend day, the occasional second progress is slow but steady. First steps were to find all the rust and start cutting it all out. Effected areas: Engine aprons, cowl, front fenders, rear quarters, trunk floor, trunk lid, doors, floor (rt frnt) door pillars, “b” posts, rockers. OK, my first assumption of not too rusty is proving to be inaccurate.

The following took place from August 2014 to January 2015










Cutting and scraping, fitting and welding, rest, work… repeat.

We’ve now past a year, into September 2015

That all looks painfully familiar. ::yourock::

You're making great progress...good job! What are the plans for the car when it's done?

Wow some of you guys amaze me. I scraped one with less rust than yours, lol. That is a lot of work for sure but you are getting it done.

David

A great amount of work in a short time in my opinion. Nice job!

Thanks guys for the comments and support, and willing acceptance of craziness.

Since September it’s been cutting and fitting and welding and grinding. Rebuilding the rockers and sills, and cutting out the rust and rebuilding the B-posts since these aren’t yet reproduced.

David in North Carolina, this is a case of once you’re in so deep you gotta keep swimming to the other side.











In addition, new 1" drop springs, upper control arms, braided brake lines, tacky racer boy red paint on the calipers, urethane sway bar bushings, KYB gas adjust shocks and so on.

Nice work.

So, here we are, mid-April and there has been a lot of progress and I can actually start to see the light at the end. All welding is completed, engine is back in, all the plumbing is done (all new brake and fuel lines). Starting to cover everything in primer and get it all fitted back up. Classic Auto Air perfect fit system is going in, etc, etc, etc.









This weekend ought to bring even more noticeable progress. I am shooting for Late June to be on the road again.

Fantastic thread, great to see so many pictures and kudos for getting a lot done; that is no small task.

I'm psyching myself up going over pictures of peoples restorations, I'm going to be tacking some panel replacement in mine in the not to distant future and seeing threads like this makes me see that it can be done with hard work and time!

Great work! Nice to see another 73 convert saved! Any pictures of the British cars you restored? I have a 1960 MGA that is a failed restoration for me. Never finished it.

Looking good, your getting closer.

Thanks folks for the good words, A lot of time, effort and beer tokens go into doing this kind of work and it’s always good to have support from the community.

I spent this weekend prepping the underside of the hood, the dash components, the underside of the rear deck lid, and the inner parts of the front fenders. Once all ready to go squirted the Ice Blue Metallic paint on them.







Mike, re: British Cars, I’ll have to dig up pictures but I’ve done a 61 AH 3000, a 63 E-type, a 53 TD, numerous B’s, built a Lotus 7 replica, several pre-73 Minis, and more Land Rovers than you can shake a stick at.

Thanks,

DG

2 Months later and it looks like there's going to be some progress! I'll be squirting the paint all over the outsides. Stay tuned for pictures and a time lapse video!

DG

Can't wait to see that color on the car. I like it so far.

Where in the world have I been! Well, earlier this year I got Zelda back on the road, so I've been busy doing that! Got the classic air working, a necessity here in South Florida and we've been putting a few miles on her. There's always stuff to play with but she purrs like a kitten and gets us around in style.